No Doubt's Gwen Stefani ... 'My plan was to write, but I just ate all the time'. Photograph: Chris Weeks/AP

No Doubt are to make their comeback without a new album, Gwen Stefani has revealed, because ... she was eating.

As America's most radio-friendly ska-pop band launch their comeback tour – and it's a comeback, they insist, not a tribute – they do so with a distinct lack of new material. The reason, Stefani explained, is the combination of gluttony and sloth. "Honestly, it's procrastination," she told Billboard this week. "My plan was to get pregnant and write a record, but instead of writing, I just ate all the time."

It is eight years since No Doubt's last studio album, and three since Stefani released a solo record. In the interim, she has given birth to two children, failed at making that No Doubt album, and, er, thought a lot about handbags. "I can do things like have meetings at my house and juggle it all," Stefani said, omitting all that making music stuff. "As soon as the pressure to make a new album was off, it was like a weight was lifted ... I'm actually heading to a five-hour meeting about the new line of handbags after this, and I'm pretty excited. I started it seven years ago and never thought it would last, but here we are."

Writing music, Stefani explained, is difficult. "Writing is always really hard for me – I hate it and then I do it, and I'm happy it's done. I was blocked and I needed to get inspired, and I thought playing live would get the creative juices flowing again."

But the band insist their forthcoming US tour is not an act of nostalgia – even if they haven't released anything since 2001. "I don't see us as being part of that 90s revival," bassist Tony Kanal said. Their biggest hits just happen to have been in ... 1996.